Rare victory for Filipino 'everyman'

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Angelo de la Cruz kisses his son Jefferson after his hero's welcome home to the
Philippines.Picture:Reuters

As a symbol of 8 million overseas workers, Angelo de la Cruz owes his life to political expediency at home, writes Connie Levett from Manila.

They don't read The New York Times in Mexico, Pampanga - Angelo de la Cruz's sleepy village two hours north of Manila. Their needs are more basic.

With unemployment in the Philippines running at 13.7 per cent, more than 8 million Filipinos must leave home to provide a better life for their families. Mr de la Cruz drove trucks in Saudi Arabia to pay for his children's education and a second bedroom for his family of 10.

Today he is the face of a nation, feted by his president, every life-giving breath celebrated. He has succeeded far beyond the modest dreams of an overseas Filipino worker: a senator has offered his children scholarships, his blind son Jefferson will get an eye operation and he has been given a new home by a construction company.

Three weeks ago, he was another faceless Filipino abroad. How could the fate of a poor truck driver - taken hostage by Iraqi militants on July 4 and threatened with beheading if the Philippines did not pull its troops out of Iraq - change his country's foreign policy? Why would President Gloria Arroyo, recently sworn in for her second term, damage relations with her most important ally, the United States, by giving in to blackmail, especially when she is fighting a Muslim insurgency in the southern Philippines?

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In his homecoming press conference, Mr de la Cruz poignantly acknowledged how little importance is usually allotted to overseas Filipino workers by thanking Dr Arroyo "for giving value to my life, that I will never forget".

For Dr Arroyo, the power of Mr de la Cruz lies in him being an ordinary man. Announcing his release this week, she said: "Angelo has become a Filipino everyman, a symbol of the hardworking Filipino seeking hope and opportunity."

But Ellen Tordesillas, a political columnist with Malaya, a Manila daily paper, said: "She knew if Angelo lost his head, hers was next to go. Gloria is not really loved - she has never connected with the poor, she is seen as cold. Not giving in to the kidnappers would have supported that."

It is less than a month since she was declared the winner in a disputed presidential election and the protests over the result continue to simmer. As workers' rights groups began to rally for Mr de la Cruz, the two causes threatened to merge. While Dr Arroyo hesitated last week, Philippine Daily Inquirer online columnist William Esposo castigated her: "Does saving face for George W. Bush weigh more than saving the life of Angelo de la Cruz?"

On Thursday, the US recalled its ambassador, reportedly to "re-evaluate" its relations with the Philippines, but, for now, Manila is focusing on securing the homeland. Asked to respond to a scathing New York Times editorial on the Philippines withdrawing troops from Iraq, Dr Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said: "They don't read the New York Times in Mexico, Pampanga."

Tordesillas said: "The anger was intensifying from below, the elite above didn't really care. Angelo was the spark. (But) everybody has a relative working overseas and it became everyone's story - their brother, their cousin."

Dr Arroyo also knows the poor have long memories. In 1995, maid Flor Contemplacion was hanged in Singapore after confessing to the murder of another maid and the child in her care. It sparked huge protests in the Philippines, where the masses claimed she had been falsely accused and forced to confess. People railed against a government that appeared to put good relations with its wealthy neighbour ahead of its citizen's rights. "With the Flor Contemplacion case there was nothing the government could do . . . This time it was in (Dr Arroyo's) hand," Tordesillas said.

Migrante, a group that represents overseas workers, has called for a review of migration, saying the answer is to create more jobs at home.

The question is, what happens the next time a Filipino worker is in trouble overseas? On Thursday, Mr de la Cruz said he expected the Government would extend the same helping hand.

However, Dr Arroyo sounded a note of caution: "The circumstances may not (always) allow such a successful outcome."